Photo by Emma G. Cummings
PEASANT WITH DISTAFF, SPINNING AS SHE WALKS
The Greek royal family are claimed
as the best looking, the most charming
mannered, and the best behaved royalties
in Europe. I believe it to be true. Court
life is democratic and simple, the late
King much preferred his life as a farmer
at the Chateau of Tatoi to that of the
palace at Athens. Queen Olga and the
princesses devote themselves to good
works, and the princes have so recently
given such good account of themselves
on the field of battle that words of mine
are needless.
My chief criticism of modern Greek
life would be that the young men of
good family and of fortune have not
turned themselves to the economic de
velopment of their country. Manufac
turing and agriculture have been almost
wholly neglected, and all that one wears
and much of what one eats is brought
from abroad. The owners of estates
have considered them chiefly useful as a
foothold for a seat in Parliament-that
one-chambered and often turbulent body
where have centered the chief defects in
Greek development.
POLITICS THE CURSE OF THE GREEKS
To speak the truth, the curse of poli
tics has overlain all Greek activities
since the establishment of the kingdom.
And politics in Greece has meant a sor
did thing. There are no questions of
principle which divide parties there.
Economic conditions demand high tar
iffs; on foreign questions there is no
division; sociological problems have not
developed along party lines-and so it
has happened that parties have now
grown up with well-defined lines of
cleavage in policy, but have arisen from
time to time in accordance with the am
bitions or political necessities of individ
ual leaders-and the struggle has been
wholly between the ins and the outs.
Thus it has happened that maladmin
istration has been the rule. I have never
inclined to the belief that Greek admin
istration has been dishonest. In fact,
the modest budget forbids graft on any
scale to be really dangerous, but waste
fulness and poor service have been com
mon to all ministries.
I speak of this in the past tense, be-